Are you ready for HTML5 video?

No matter where you sit in the HTML5/Flash debate, the fact is, more and more mobile or low-powered devices are being shipped either without or with very minimal support for Flash video. Web developers who design sites that utilize video need to be cognizant of this reality and design and build their sites accordingly.

While it’s great that video hosting services like Vimeo and YouTube support HTML5 and that solutions for larger sites are available from places like Encoding.com and Brightcove, that still leaves users who want to host their own video content — but don’t necessarily use a platform like Brightcove — in a bit of a predicament. After all, in a perfect world, everyone who visits a website should be able to view video, whether they are on a desktop or on an iPhone.

Fortunately, there are a number of great free tools available that will let you serve video via HTML5 and also support Flash, in the event that a visitor’s browser doesn’t support HTML5 (or in some cases, the video codec being used with your HTML5 code).